Ukraine peace plan could include demilitarized zones, says Zelensky

Ukraine won some concessions in the latest version of a U.S.-led draft plan to end the outbreak. the Russian invasion revealed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, although key questions remain over territory and Moscow’s ability to accept the new terms.

The 20-point plan, agreed by U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators, was being revised by Moscow, but the Kremlin has so far refused to abandon its tough territorial demands in favor of a full withdrawal from eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Moscow was “formulating its position” and declined to comment on the details of the latest plan. He said that Moscow considers it “highly inappropriate to conduct any form of communication through the media.”

Zelensky briefed journalists on each point of the plan on Tuesday, but journalists were only allowed to reveal information about it on Wednesday morning.

Zelensky acknowledged that some points in the document did not please him, but said kyiv had managed to remove immediate demands that Ukraine withdraw from the Donetsk region, in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, or that lands seized by Moscow’s army be recognized as Russian.

However, the Ukrainian leader indicated that the proposal would pave the way for the withdrawal of some troops from kyiv, including the 20% of the Donetsk region it controls, where demilitarized zones would be established.

He also got rid of demands that kyiv legally renounce its bid for NATO membership.

Zelensky presented the plan in a two-hour briefing with journalists, reading from a highlighted and annotated version.

“In the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the line of troop deployment on the date of this agreement is de facto recognized as the contact line,” Zelensky said about the latest version.

“A working group will meet to determine the redeployment of forces necessary to end the conflict, as well as to define the parameters of possible future special economic zones,” he added.

This appears to suggest that the plan opens the way, but delays, options that Ukraine was previously reluctant to consider: troop withdrawal and the creation of demilitarized zones.

“We are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way,” Zelensky said.

“They are looking for a demilitarized zone or a free economic zone, that is to say a format that can satisfy both parties,” he continued.

President Trump is trying to broker a deal to end the four-year war sparked by Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Tens of thousands of people were killed, eastern Ukraine was decimated and millions were forced to flee their homes.

Russian troops are advancing on the front line and hammering cities and Ukraine’s energy grid with nightly barrages of missiles and drones. The Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had captured another Ukrainian settlement, in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

Moscow claimed in 2022 to have annexed four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – in addition to the Crimean peninsula which it seized in 2014.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin showed no willingness to compromise, doubling down on firm demands for a massive withdrawal from Ukraine and a series of political concessions that kyiv and its European backers had previously described as capitulation.

Any plan involving Ukraine withdrawing its troops will have to be approved in a referendum in Ukraine, Zelensky stressed.

“A free economic zone. If we discuss it, then we have to hold a referendum,” Zelensky said, referring to the plan to designate the areas Ukraine is withdrawing from as a demilitarized free trade zone.

Regarding NATO, Zelensky said it was “the choice of NATO members whether or not to have Ukraine. Our choice has been made. We have moved away from the proposed changes to the Constitution of Ukraine that would have banned Ukraine from joining NATO.”

Nonetheless, Ukraine’s chances of admission to the bloc appear slim to none, as Washington has excluded it.

Moscow has repeatedly said that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is unacceptable, presenting it as one of the reasons for its invasion.

The plan provides for joint American-Ukrainian-Russian management of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, occupied by Russian troops. Zelensky said he did not want Russia to exercise surveillance over the facility.

He also said Ukraine would hold presidential elections only after a deal was signed – something Trump and Putin have called for.

Russian officials have repeatedly criticized European and Ukrainian efforts to modify an initial U.S. plan that enshrined many of Moscow’s demands.

Direct negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators earlier this year in Istanbul failed to break the deadlock and despite the diplomatic whirlwind, the two countries’ positions still appear far apart.